What’s interesting in the news today?
1. Not good news……
From Inquisitr “ISIS is clearly feeling the pain after weeks of intense air strikes against it by the U.S.- led coalition fighting the spread of the terrorist organization in the Middle East.
Employing its familiar tactics, the Islamic State is now threatening to execute the 150 Assyrian Christians they have taken hostage in Syria.
While initial reports suggested that between 70 and 100 people had been taken captive, according to the Daily Mail the true figure is thought to be almost double, including many women, children and elderly people.
It is thought that a new ISIS video is in the making which will address American President Barack Obama. It will tell him that if the air strikes don’t stop, the 150 Christian hostages will be killed.”
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2. Bibi declines a Democrat offer to meet behind closed doors.
From TheJerusalemPost “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declined an invitation by Senate Democrats to meet during his visit to Washington next week, citing fears it might “compound the misperception of partisanship” surrounding the trip.
“I regret that the invitation to address the special joint session of Congress has been perceived by some to be political or partisan,” reads the letter, obtained by The Jerusalem Post. “I can assure you that my sole intention in accepting it was to voice Israel’s grave concerns about a potential nuclear agreement with Iran that could threaten the survival of my country.”
The letter was addressed to Senators Richard Durbin (D-Illinois) and Dianne Feinstein (D-California), who invited the prime minister to discuss his concerns in detail to Democrats in a closed-door environment, in addition to the address.
Netanyahu said he considers the speech an opportunity to address the representatives of the American people, and not of one particular political party.”
So the quarrel intensifies.
From MSN/AP ” Trading barbs, the U.S. and Israel escalated their increasingly public spat Wednesday over Benjamin Netanyahu’s GOP-engineered congressional speech next week, with the Israeli prime minister accusing world powers of rolling over to allow Tehran to develop nuclear weapons. Secretary of State John Kerry openly questioned Netanyahu’s judgment on the issue.
The comments injected new tension into an already strained relationship between the close allies ahead of Netanyahu’s address to Congress next Tuesday. More Democratic lawmakers announced they would skip the speech, which was orchestrated by GOP leaders without the Obama administration’s knowledge.
Netanyahu hopes his speech will strengthen opposition to a potential nuclear deal with Iran, President Barack Obama’s signature foreign policy objective. U.S. and Iranian officials reported progress in negotiations this week on a deal that would clamp down on Tehran’s nuclear activities for at least 10 years but then slowly ease restrictions.”
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3. Vermont is considering legal action against Jonathon Gruber.
From RedAlertPolitics “A Vermont state auditor is blowing the whistle on Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber’s suspect “billing practices.”
In a memo sent to Administration Secretary Justin Johnson Monday, Auditor Doug Hoffer presents evidence that suggests Gruber “overstated” the hours worked on his economic modeling contract for the state, as reports the Burlington Free Press. Hoffer is therefore referring the issue to Attorney General William Sorrell, who himself expressed concern about the “serious questions” raised by the auditor.
The $400,000 contract began in July 2014, and thus Gruber was working on it when his comments about Obamacare’s “lack of transparency” and the “stupidity of the American voter” went viral last November.
The contract was renegotiated in November following the media reports of the MIT professor’s comments and Gruber’s billing was kept under watch.
“The evidence suggests that Dr. Gruber overstated the hours worked by the RA and that the Agency of Administration ignored the obvious signs that something was amiss,” the state auditor writes in the memo.”
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4. Are police abusing forfeiture laws? Sure looks like it.
From TheDetroitFreePress “Thomas Williams was alone that November morning in 2013 when police raided his rural St. Joseph County home, wearing black masks, camouflage and holding guns at their sides. They broke down his front door with a battering ram.
“We think you’re dealing marijuana,” they told Williams, a 72-year-old, retired carpenter and cancer patient who is disabled and carries a medical marijuana card.
When he protested, they handcuffed him and left him on the living room floor as they ransacked his home, emptying drawers, rummaging through closets and surveying his grow room, where he was nourishing his 12 personal marijuana plants as allowed by law. Some had recently begun to die, so he had cloned them and had new seedlings, although they were not yet planted. That, police insisted, put him over the limit.
They did not charge Williams with a crime, though.
Instead, they took his Dodge Journey, $11,000 in cash from his home, his television, his cell phone, his shotgun and are attempting to take his Colon Township home. And they plan to keep the proceeds, auctioning off the property and putting the cash in police coffers.”
It’s been over a year, no charges, yet police refuse to return his property. There are numerous other examples as well.
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5. Looks like Obama isn’t the only one… 😆
From YouGov “Only 71% of under-30s say they ‘love America’ compared to 93% of over-65s – but Americans tend to think Obama loves the country“
“YouGov’s latest research shows that Americans do tend to think that Barack Obama does, in fact, love America. 47% say that the president loves America, while 35% agree with Rudy Giuliani that the president does not. There is a predictably large partisan divide on the issue, however, with 85% of Democrats saying that he loves America and 69% of Republicans saying that he does not. Independents are roughly divided on the issue, with 42% saying he loves the country and 38% saying he doesn’t.”
“When Americans themselves are asked whether they love America, under-30s are noticeably less likely than their elders to say that they love America. 93% of over-65s and 90% of people aged 45 to 64 say that they love America, but only 71% of under-30s also say that they love America. 15% of under-30s say that they do not love America, while 14% aren’t sure.”
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6. Related to the above? 😆
From RedAlertPolitics “American millennials really can’t catch a break.
If they aren’t getting bad news from the latest unemployment numbers or the student loan debt dollars, they aren’t getting disappointing news from a new study comparing them to the rest of the developed world.
The new analysis, released Tuesday by the Educational Testing Service, makes use of data collected by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development through a project called the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, according to Inside Higher Ed.
It focused on millennials, defining the generation as those between 16 and 34, and focused on three areas of study — literacy, numeracy and problem solving.
The U.S. did not fare well.
The U.S. ranked last in both numeracy and problem solving. They were tied with Italy and Spain for last in numeracy and tied with Slovak Republic, Ireland and Poland in problem solving.”
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Wandering Views 